Deep Blue See
by SegretarioDellaOfelia
Summary: Series of story segments in between when Hank first met Raven and turned into Beast. Hank encourages her to be natural, but loves her as her human form more. She comforts him after the shock of the change, but has to leave him. Movie-verse. Juicy LEMON ahead in cha2!


Hank McCoy/Raven Darkholme Fic. Rated M, just to be safe (esp for later!)

Summary: Series of story-segments in between when Hank first met Raven and turned into Beast. Hank encourages her to be natural, but loves her as her human form more. She comforts him after the change, but has to leave him. Movie-verse. Multi-chapter story.

Theme Song: "Round & Round" by Imagine Dragons

Disclaimer: I talk too much. I don't own X-Men characters.

**Deep Blue See, Part 1**

The first time Raven Darkholme saw him she knew she was a goner. Those pretty blue eyes shining behind Buddy Holly glasses bore straight into her heart. The white lab coat was a little funny looking on him, especially because he was so young, but hey, she liked the smart guys. Suddenly, Charles said something that made him immediately uncomfortable, making Raven anxious too, but it seemed to pass soon enough before we were all ushered out for another meeting. Raven thought it was too warm in that room and was glad to leave it.

Later when Hank McCoy showed his feet, or rather his _feet hands_, Raven didn't feel disgust or fright. She felt relief and joy. He was even more beautiful to her, but she knew he still wasn't convinced, himself. Charles was giddy and the chubby human agent was just as surprised as anyone else. But Hank just stood there smiling as he flexed his feet-fingers from being crammed into those shoes that were clearly not made for his feet.

Hank was overheating in his grey sweater, and his tie was suffocating him. He hoped she couldn't tell that his insides were churning as they walked together down a lonely hallway.

"Why are you even wearing that sweater? It's August." She finally blurted out. She must have noticed.

Hank blushed an even darker shade of pink as he finally took the sweltering garment off. "It gets cold in the lab sometimes."

"Well, we're not in the lab anymore, silly." She chuckled. The sound was like perfect music to his ears. She took the sweater from him and held with crossed arms as they continued walking down the empty hallway. He thought it was a cute gesture, but didn't know why she took it.

"Where are we going anyway? You said we were going to see something top secret?" she said, trying to encourage him to speak more.

"Right, we're going to the engineering deck, it's one floor down and you might want to wear that once we get in," Hank piped up.

But Raven wore an unconvincing look that said she didn't understand

"I'm going to need it?" she said, doubtingly.

"Yeah, it's a concrete cave." Hank smiled knowingly.

Raven raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Sure,"

"Alright, don't believe me. But I think you'll like it."

"You were right, it is chilly in here!" said Raven, taking Hank's wool sweater and putting it around her shoulders. He smiled as he watched her, his sweater was way too big for her, but he liked it. They walked through the narrow doorway that fanned out into a massive, semi-dark concrete cavern that smelled like an auto shop.

"C'mon, I'll show you my jet." Hank took her hand.

"Your _what?_" she said surprised as he led them forward into the darkened atrium.

Raven gasped as they turned the corner of the giant concrete cavern to find a huge jet suspended above them. It looked unlike any plane Raven had seen before, making her curious. "Can we get up there?" she said, putting her arms through Hanks sweater sleeves as she ran towards it.

"_Wait!"_ Hank called after Raven. "It's got a drop!"

Raven halted in her tracks, arms flailing out as she realized there was a drastic drop in front of her, when Hank ran straight into her, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back before she could fall. She turned around suddenly, and curled into his arms, looking panicked.

"Thanks!" she breathed, clutching to the front of his button-down shirt.

Hank smiled, "You're okay. I gotcha." He held her as he stepped them back away from the drop-off.

"Where did that come from?" she asked.

"Part of the… security measures. You've gotta access the entry from… down there."

Raven realized she was still clutching to his shirt as if her life depended on it. Loosening her death grip on his plaid Oxford, she smoothed down the wrinkles and let her hands linger on his heaving chest. She didn't dare look up, because she knew those deep blue eyes were piercing her again, and she loved the way it felt.

Suddenly forgetting about his sweater, Raven was pushing him back into the cargo bay of the darkened jet, pressing her lips against his hot mouth. She felt so good to him, letting her take control of him like that as he pulled her jacket off her shoulders. Without looking where he was falling, Hank dropped into a bucket seat, bringing Raven with him.

"Oohph!" Raven yelped as she landed on his closed legs.

"Oh, sorry!" Hank offered nervously, but she swallowed any apology he was going to give with another kiss, scooting further up his legs into his lap. Her knees reached the sides of his hips as his hands wandered up to her ribcage, thumbs resting just beneath her breasts. _Not bad for a first time with a girl_, Hank thought to himself as he pulled her closer to him. She tugged at his tie the deeper she kissed him, making Hank even warmer now than he could have possibly been in the lab earlier.

It had been a few weeks since Raven took Hank up in the prototype jet, getting to know him better. Charles brought them back from New York City to the secret facility for more meetings, and the only thing she wanted to do was to see the genius. Remembering the path she took last time they visited, Raven found the place where Hank worked. She found the lab door open, and hoped to sneak a peak at her new favorite person. She crept towards the doorway, and pushed it open far enough to walk in. Hank was sitting facing away from her, tinkering with something, completely unaware of her. Not one to pass a golden opportunity for mischief, Raven shape shifted into an identical version of Hank and walked up next to him. Upon hearing footfalls, Hank turned around, looking half-bored until he realized who he was looking at. Hank's eyes widened as he pushed his glasses up geekishly, and broke into a sly grin.

"Nice. …That _is_ you, Raven?"

She cocked her head to the side and shifted back into her blonde haired, fair-skinned mask. It was not at all the reaction she expected from him.

"I'm glad you came back… my sweater doesn't smell like you anymore." She spoke shyly.

She smiled, wanting to crawl up in his lap again like she did in the jet.

"I can make something else smell nice, if you want me to…" Raven said as she shifted out of her clothes, standing quite naked in front of a pleasantly surprised Hank.

"I dunno…" he started, scratching the back of his neck as his mouth went dry. "I think I might not have anything left."

His blue eyes pierced her again as he gazed at her beauty, but to her it was her mask. Raven couldn't hold the gaze of those bright blue orbs any longer, feeling too vulnerable beneath them. Being exposed like this had nothing to do with it. Something about his gaze made her feel reckless and too hot again in this damn room. Hank dropped the lab coat from his shoulders and wrapped it around her like a lasso, bringing her to him. Sitting back on a lab stool, Hank brought her right up to him and kissed her.

"You're _beautiful_, Raven. Perfect." crooned Hank at her neck as he took in her delightful scent again.

She hesitated a moment, just enough for him to notice it. Her lips parted, about to say something, but words didn't come forth.

"What? Too soon?" Hank panicked.

"This isn't me," whispered Raven, turning away from his face. "I'm not perfect…"

"Neither am I," tried Hank, showing his shoe-less feet-hands and wiggling his toes happily, trying to prove to her that he was reconciling with himself of what he was.

"But I accept _you_ for what you are. I think you're beautiful, Hank, just the way you are." She pleaded.

He blushed, unused to such compliments.

"Don't you accept me?" she asked, and Hank smelled a trap.

"Of course I do, Raven."

Suddenly she shifted to her natural blue self with blazing red sleeked-back hair. Her yellow eyes were intimidating, but Hank continued to look at her.

"You match my eyes now." He offered shyly, dropping the lab coat.

She didn't quite feel convinced yet of his neutrality to her, so she leaned in for a kiss. Her lips seemed different to him; a different texture, but she tasted just the same. He closed his eyes, and just tried to _feel_ the way she looked, rather than pretend she was the blonde haired, fair skinned mask that he fell in love with in the first place. Being brave, he lifted his hands to hold her shoulders, but found their rough texture surprising and recoiled from her. Raven's eyes opened and she quickly moved back away from Hank.

"Oh, my god Raven, I'm sorry—I've just never touched you in this form before. I… I guess I didn't know what to expect. Please don't be upset with me." He looked genuinely sorry, as he stood up from the stool, clasping his hands together.

She wasn't sure what to think anymore, so she shifted back to her normal appearance, with clothes on again.

Hank made a playful noise of disappointment at her change, bringing a shadow of a smile back to her lips. He wanted to kiss her again, so badly; to take her back to the jet and love her again like when they first met. He felt deeply guilty about recoiling from her a moment ago, so he sat back down on his lab stool, staring at his unique feet.

"So, these really don't bother you?" he asked quietly, turning to face her again behind those thick glasses.

"Not at all. I love what makes you special, Hank." She offered.

He immediately felt even guiltier now than he did before. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

"I've always hated them. My parents always tried to hide them, to hide me. And despised me for it." He admitted, now staring at the bubbling concoction over a dancing flame in front of him. It brought her attention to what he was working on before she interrupted.

"My parents abandoned me when I was a baby. They didn't want a little blue freak of nature in their family. So I've been trying to hide it ever since. I thought meeting another one of us… I thought maybe I'd finally be accepted for who I am now…" she said sternly, before turning to walk out of the lab.

"Wait! Raven!" Hank called after her frantically, remembering to turn off the flame and pick his lab coat up off the ground, and swinging it around his arms before flying out after her.

She was already halfway down the hall before he could catch up to where he thought she would be. He looked all around for her, but there was no one but an armed security guard sitting at a desk to be seen.

"Raven!" he called again, getting flustered. "Hey, have you seen a girl come through here?" Hank called to the security guard down the way. The bored guard looked up from his papers and shook his head no.

Hank had a fleeting thought that maybe that guard was actually Raven, but if he was wrong he was going to look crazy and be sent back to his lab. He turned around and suddenly it came to him. He knew where she was.

Hank unlocked the basement door to the concrete cavern and stepped in. The lights were still off, and he walked cautiously towards the corner that led to the jet. Oddly enough, Hank found the moveable metal staircase already placed next to the open hatch at the side of the jet. She was already here. He picked up the pace as he moved towards the staircase, hoping to find her in there and apologize. This was not the ideal scenario of their reunion he had been fantasizing about for weeks.  
Raven was sitting in the cockpit, curled up into a ball in one of the pilot chairs. She wanted to be herself, but this world would not accept her. Neither humans nor mutants saw her natural self as lovely. She despised herself, a feeling she's been living with all her life and the burden just kept getting heavier every time she tried to get close to someone else. She wanted a normal life, a normal body, and friends. She had been alone for so long until Charles found her, and now Hank—the cutest boy, with the most hope ever—might be just like everyone else that rejected her. And she didn't want to accept that knowledge.

Hank treads up the metal stairs, making his feet cold as he gripped the edges, and into the cargo bay. He didn't see her in their _spot_, but he knew she was here. His acute hearing picked up sobs from the front, in the cockpit. Raven could hear him too, but she didn't want to move. She wished she could go full chameleon and blend into the seat she was sitting in.

"Raven," Hank whispered, standing in the passageway. "Can I come in?"

She sniffed and nodded yes.

"I want you to know that I don't think you're weird. You're the most normal girl I've ever met. There's nothing wrong with who…or what you are." Said Hank, as he arranged himself on the floor next to where she was sitting.

Raven angled her head against her knees to look at him. She so desperately wanted to know the things he was saying were true.

"Even if I'm like this?" she said as she shifted back to her normal blue appearance.

"Yes, beautiful," breathed Hank leaning in closer to kiss her.

Leave me a little review-love, please? xoxo


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